Tuesday, 12 February 2013

50th Anniversary celebrations from the Radio Times

The new edition of the Radio Times (16-22 Feb 2013) will come with a selection of postcards featuring notable Doctor Who front covers to launch the magazine's 50th Anniversary celebrations for the series. Each issue comes with one of two sets of four of the distinctive designs:

The magazine also looks ahead to plans for the 50th anniversary, and towards the new series at Easter. And for the magazine itself:

November 2013 marks 50 years of Doctor Who on TV, and RT will bring you all the news as it unfolds – starting with some of the treats coming up. The most hugely anticipated event is surely the Anniversary special on BBC1. All details are firmly under wraps – and it doesn’t even start filming until spring, but fans worldwide are praying for a multi-Doctor escapade, perhaps with a few former best friends and best enemies thrown in. Could it actually happen? And would all the surviving actors be available – and willing – to appear in such a celebration?

Tom Baker famously declined to participate in The Five Doctors in 1983, and the first three actors to play the Doctor are now long dead. But if William Hartnell can be recast (in The Five Doctors and now in An Adventure in Space and Time) is it conceivable that other actors might convince in Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee’s shadows? This might all be pure fantasy, but what is known is that showrunner Steven Moffat has been toiling with the script. He tells Radio Times: "I’m mostly excited, a little bit nervous, and aware of trying not to let people down." Filming began on 3 February at BBC Television Centre, on what is likely to be the last drama made on the site before it’s redeveloped. Executive producer Caroline Skinner tells RT: "As the BBC moves out of TV Centre, we are moving the cast and crew for An Adventure in Space and Time in! It’s a fantastic opportunity to film this momentous story in the actual location – a little bit of television history."

The new edition will also carry an exclusive shot of David Bradley as William Hartnell, taken on the second day of filming.